Sunday, February 03, 2013

Sleeping judge who sentenced defendant to five years in penal colony resigns

A Russian judge has resigned after a video apparently showed him asleep during a trial that ended with him sentencing the defendant to five years in a penal colony.
Critics of the Russian justice system, which has a notoriously high conviction rate, were outraged when the video purporting to show judge Yevgeny Makhno sleeping through a defence lawyer's speech in court was posted online.

The video, allegedly shot during a fraud trial last July in the far-eastern town of Blagoveshchensk, seems to show Makhno slumped in his chair fast asleep with his head cocked to one side. The businessman sentenced to five years hard labour will have a new trial on February 14 after an appeal was lodged over the "unjust" sentence.